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Category: space – Page 75

The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) has been shrouded in mystery since its maiden flight in 2011.

Designed by Boeing and operated by the US Space Force (USSF), this remotely operated, reusable space plane is designed to operate in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO), 240 to 800 kilometers (150 to 500 miles) above the Earth, and test reusable vehicle technologies that support long-term space objectives.

On December 29th, 2023, the X-37B began its seventh mission (OTV-7) and has reportedly been conducting experiments on the effects of space radiation and testing Space Domain Awareness (SDA) technologies.

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The Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS) is the first large-area survey to be conducted with the full 36-antenna Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope. RACS will provide a shallow model of the ASKAP sky that will aid the calibration of future deep ASKAP surveys. RACS will cover the whole sky visible from the ASKAP site in Western Australia and will cover the full ASKAP band of 700‑1800 MHz. The RACS images are generally deeper than the existing NRAO VLA Sky Survey and Sydney University Molonglo Sky Survey radio surveys and have better spatial resolution. All RACS survey products will be public, including radio images (with $\sim$15 arcsec resolution) and catalogues of about three million source components with spectral index and polarisation information. In this paper, we present a description of the RACS survey and the first data release of 903 images covering the sky south of declination $+41^\circ$ made over a 288-MHz band centred at 887.5 MHz.

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A spinning white dwarf drags space-time around it 100 million times more powerfully than Earth.

Astronomers have recently provided compelling evidence of a star dragging space-time, showcasing one of Einstein’s lesser-known predictions. This phenomenon, known as “frame-dragging,” describes how a spinning object distorts the very fabric of space-time around it. While this effect is nearly imperceptible in everyday life, even on a planetary scale, certain cosmic conditions make it much more noticeable. A study published in Science details these observations using a radio telescope to study a rare pair of compact stars.

Frame-Dragging and Einstein’s Predictions Einstein’s theory of general relativity is fundamental to our understanding of gravity. It suggests that massive objects bend space-time, affecting the motion of nearby objects. Additionally, when these massive bodies spin, they twist space-time around them. Detecting frame-dragging on Earth is extremely challenging, requiring highly sensitive instruments like the Gravity Probe B, a satellite that measures minute changes in angular velocity. But in the cosmos, certain celestial objects can serve as natural laboratories to observe this effect with greater clarity.

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Astronomers have published a gigantic infrared map of the Milky Way containing more than 1.5 billion objects — the most detailed one ever made. Using the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope, the team monitored the central regions of our Galaxy over more than 13 years. At 500 terabytes of data, this is the largest observational project ever carried out with an ESO telescope.

“We made so many discoveries, we have changed the view of our Galaxy forever,” says Dante Minniti, an astrophysicist at Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile who led the overall project.

This record-breaking map comprises 200,000 images taken by ESO’s VISTA — the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy. Located at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile, the telescope’s main purpose is to map large areas of the sky. The team used VISTA’s infrared camera VIRCAM, which can peer through the dust and gas that permeates our galaxy. It is therefore able to see the radiation from the Milky Way’s most hidden places, opening a unique window onto our galactic surroundings.

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SpaceX was awarded an eight-launch, $733 million contract by the U.S. Space Force on Friday, as part of an ongoing program intended to foster competition among launch providers.

The award includes seven launches for the Space Development Agency and one for the National Reconnaissance Office, all anticipated to use Falcon 9s and occur no earlier than 2026.

The massive new contract is part of a U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command (SSC) program with the catchy name of “National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1.” This third round of contracts was split into two lanes last year: Lane 1, for lower-risk missions and near-Earth orbits; and Lane 2, for heavy-lift missions and the more demanding orbits.

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In the future, there could be a spacecraft capable of maneuvering with unprecedented speed and agility, without the constraints of limited fuel.

The U.S. Space Force has provided funding of $35 million to create a new spacecraft that can “maneuver without regret.”

The University of Michigan is leading a team of researchers and institutions to develop this advanced spacecraft.

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Earth’s magnetic field dramatically flipped a little more than 40,000 years ago. We can now experience this upheaval as an unnerving clatter interpreted from information collected by the European Space Agency’s Swarm satellite mission.

Combining the satellite data with evidence of magnetic field line movements on Earth, European geoscientists mapped the so-called Laschamps event and represented it using natural noises like the creaking of wood and the crashing of colliding rocks.

The resulting compilation from the Technical University of Denmark and the German Research Center for Geosciences is unlike anything you’ve ever heard.

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